DOA: The Spellings Commission

Academe ◽  
2006 ◽  
Vol 92 (6) ◽  
pp. 80
Author(s):  
William G. Tierney
Keyword(s):  
Spellings Commission

Truth without Action

2015 ◽  
Vol 3 (10) ◽  
pp. 93-96
Author(s):  
Theodore Sawruk
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Active Role ◽  
Government Officials ◽  
Education Department ◽  
President Obama ◽  
Post Secondary ◽  
Spellings Commission ◽  
Education Report ◽  
Federal Agents ◽  
Tuition Costs

This reflection utilizes Kevin Casey’s 2007 article, Truth without Action, as a springboard to address contemporary issues related to autonomy, accountability and accreditation in higher-education. With escalating costs, rising unemployment and deepening consumer debt, it is natural for government officials to seek out a cause, or more accurately, a scape-goat for the evolving crisis. Over the last few decades, starting with A Time for Results in 1980, following with The State Post-secondary Review Entities (SPREs) in 1992; and continuing with the Spellings Commission on the Future of Higher Education Report in 2006, federal agents have politicized American education and issued indictments against higher-education. Tuition costs are too high, graduation rates are too low and student learning-outcomes remain ineffable. With the recent re-election of President Obama, “the Education Department will continue to play an active role in regulating and attempting to influence colleges and universities.” (Nelson, 2012) Amy Laitinen, deputy director for higher-education at the New America Foundation and former Education Department policy advisor, recently stated, “The President himself, not just his advisors, is very interested in the college cost and the college outcome issue.” (Nelson, 2012)

Assessing the Composition Program on Our Own Terms

2011 ◽  
pp. 167-184
Author(s):  
Sonya Borton ◽  
Alanna Frost ◽  
Kate Warrington
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
First Year ◽  
First Year Composition ◽  
English Departments ◽  
Large Scale Assessment ◽  
University Of Louisville ◽  
Spellings Commission ◽  
The University ◽  
Theoretical Foundations

As Jacqueline Jones Royster articulated at the 2006 Conference on College Composition and Communication, English departments are already assessing themselves and should resist suggestions by the Spellings Commission on the Future of Higher Education that a standardized method of assessing students and programs in higher education is needed. In the fall of 2006, the University of Louisville was due to be reviewed by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (SACS). The First-Year Composition program chose to conduct an internal assessment in the fall of 2004. This chapter details the Composition program assessment conducted at the University of Louisville and includes a comprehensive analysis of its rationale, theoretical foundations, methodologies, and results. This chapter also articulates the difficulties of such a large-scale assessment as well as the uniquely local challenges faced during the process.

Bologna in America: The Spellings Commission and neo-liberal higher education policy

2009 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-38 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davydd J. Greenwood
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Higher Education Policy ◽  
Bologna Process ◽  
The United States ◽  
Higher Education Reforms ◽  
Parallel Processes ◽  
History Of ◽  
Spellings Commission ◽  
The Bologna Process ◽  
The U.S

This article summarises/analyses the higher education reforms proposed by the 'Spellings Commission' in the United States on quality assurance and accountability, and draws attention to the links I see between these reform proposals and the Bologna Process. I trace a brief history of the Spellings Commission and analyse it in order to produce questions for discussion about the 'parallel' processes of reform in higher education in the U.S. and Europe.

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